Regional News of Thursday, 20 October 2011

Source: GNA

Bongo to get pipe borne water soon

Bongo (UE), Oct. 20, GNA- The people of Bongo in the Upper East Region would soon keep their teeth white by not drinking from the only source of water -under ground water which discolours their teeth because the supply of potable water is in the offing.

The Government had secured 40 million Euros from donors to establish a plant on the Tono Irrigation dam to complement the Vea plant that would pump one million gallons of water per day to Bongo, Bolgatanga, Kassena West and Kassena Nankana East Districts among other areas in the Region.

The Upper East Regional Minister had launched the Budget Composite of the Bongo District Assembly on Wednesday at Bongo.

He noted that the Bongo District Assembly in collaboration with other development partners over the years had made several efforts to address the fluoride problem in the District but to no avail and said for instance that so much money was spent in drilling boreholes but the water had too much fluoride.

The Regional Minister also assured the people of Bongo that early next year, the Government would tar the road from Bolgatanga to Bongo.

He indicated that many roads including Winkongo-Tongo, Navrongo-Sandema and Bolgatanga-Bawku, all linking District capitals would be completed next year.

He also announced that the Government had secured 18 Million dollars from the Millennium Challenge Accounts for development projects in the West Mamprusi and Builsa Districts.

According to him, a lot of money had been mobilized through the donor conference under the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) for rehabilitation of old dams and construction of new ones for dry season farming.

Mr Woyongo stated that plans were also far advanced to for the construction of Rail lines linking the three Northern Regions, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger which would promote easy transportation and ease the pressure on the roads which are usually damaged by the heavy trucks from the neighbouring countries.

He said procurement process had almost been completed to link about 500 villages in the Region to the national grid which would help improve upon the livelihoods of many rural folks.

The Regional Minister said the Government was also committed to the promotion of the sheanut industry and just like the cocoa growing areas which had roads constructed to link cocoa farms, government would provide money for the construction of roads leading to shea farms.

Mr Woyongosaid what was needed was for the people to renew the mandate for government to keep on delivering on its mandate of better Ghana Agenda.